I won 4th place!!!!!!!

I entered a contest from Wachovia called "Who Would You Thank". I wrote about wanting to thank Rachel Coleman, creator of the great Signing Time! DVD's I'm always talking about. I got a call at the beginning of January saying that I was one of 25 4th place winners. I was so excited. I won $250.00 to be used to thank Rachel in a special way. The $250.00 went to the Signing Time! Foundation's trip to Ghana, Africa. Rachel and the gang went to Ghana to teach the children and teachers at the deaf school there ASL. Anyway here is a copy of what I wrote and the letter that Wachovia sent to me.

I would like to thank Rachel Coleman. Through her children's ASL video series, Signing Time!, we have been able to communicate with our daughter who was born with a rare brain birth defect called Schizencephaly. Rachel created Signing Time! as a way for her friends and family to communicate with her daughter, Leah, who is deaf. Out of this need in her family came this incredible gift to so many other families. Signing Time! is a fun way to engage children into learning sign language. Our daughter, Julia, no longer screams in frustration because she can't be understood. She now confidently gets her needs and wants accross to us. We are thankful to be able to see Rachel daily, and would love to be able to personally say and sign Thank You, Rachel. You gave Julia the ability to "speak" with us, and for that we are eternally grateful.

Here is the letter that Wachovia sent along with the prize money:
Dear Stacey,

On behalf of Wachovia Corporation, we would like to congratulate you for being selected as a 4th Place winner in our "Who Would You Thank" contest! Your essay was one of thousands of entries from across the country to be judged, so we hope you take some pride in knowing that your story stood out among so many.

It is in the spirit of thanking customers like yourself that we created the contest. Your story captured that essence and has inspired all of us here at Wachovia.

Enclosed is your 4th Place prize check in the amount of $250.00. We hope the winnings help you find a very special way to say "thank you" to Rachel.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Congratulations!
Michael Sherck
Senior Vice Prsident
GVG Customer Experience Executive Leader

My cousin got married!

I went to Anaheim this last weekend because my cousin Jake got married. I flew down on Sat. morning with my sister and her husband, and met up with my parents. We then flew back home on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time visiting with family and celebrating Jake and Debbie. I loved being on my own for a few hours. I laughed at dinner because I didn't have to cut any food for anyone or tell people to settle down and eat. I have to say that Tom is a saint for staying at home with the gang and not once complaining. Jake was very happy that some of his family was there to support him. It was a beautiful wedding and Jake and Debbie are now in Maui on their honeymoon. Thanks Jake and Debbie for inviting me and letting me share in your special day.

The Ghana Challenge

Rachel Coleman and Signing Time! is going to Ghana, Africa to teach the deaf ASL. I would like to challenge all of you to support the Signing Time Foundation in going to Ghana by donating. Please "chip in". Every little bit helps. Just click on chip in. It's easy I even did it. :)




Leah is even going to Ghana check out this interview with her about her dream of going to Africa.

Christmas

The Hay Gang had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Gram and Pa. Gram always gives the Gang new PJ's to sleep in on Christmas Eve. This year she took the kids shopping for the PJ's. The Gang loved that because they could pick out the jammies that they wanted. This picture was taken at Grandma and Grandpa's house before we went home to sleep. We had pizza for dinner took baths and then on our way home we went looking at lights. Then everyone went home and settled in for a long sleep before Santa came and brought us wonderfrul gifts. The Gang had a hard time getting to sleep, but sleep did come and before we knew it we were up waiting for Grandma and Pa to come over for the unwrapping.
The gifts that Santa brought us. Wow were we surprised!
Santa brought us new stockings. The Gang was thrilled with their new stockings. We had to buy a special stocking holder because we use our fireplace and we can't put anything flamable near it. So, we had this stocking holder with our old Christmas Stockings on it. We had breakfast with Gram and Pa and then played with all our new stuff. We met up with family for dinner at the Sizzler. My neice works there and had to work Christmas so we all decided to have dinner there with her. It was fun. Tom's brother stopped by for a nice Christmas visit. He had never seen Henry so it was fun introducing the two. After dinner we went to Grandma and Pa's for another present unwrapping. Everyone had a magical Christmas and we were so happy to get to spend it with family. We love that we have a little Gang of people to celebrate our Saviors birth with. The season is very magical and it is such fun seeing it through the eyes of our children. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Donny Osmond sings Mary Did you know

This was sent to me by my friend Ali. I hope you enjoy it. As you're doing your last minute shopping think of him and keep his spirit within in your heart.

Happy Holidays from Signing Time!

Now we can wish our friends Merry Christmas in Sign Language. Check it out and learn some favorite Holiday words.

A van, 5 kids, 2 DVD players, lots of food, and 2 parents

Well I guess it is time I updated everyone on the Oregon Thanksgiving trip. First off we had a ball, and want to thank our Oregon relatives for a great time. We started off to Oregon on Tuesday night. I had packed lunches for eating in the car so we wouldn't have to stop. Everyone was very happy to start eating. Most of the gang wanted to eat about 10 min. into the trip. I said no not until we get to the airport at least. Julia and Henry went right to sleep and we had a pleasant drive. We stopped in Redding for gas and potty. The kids watched videos and the drive was very uneventful. We spent the night with my parents in Weed. That was a very good thing because I don't think we could've gone much further that night. The next day we woke up and there was ice on all the cars. Macie and I were wearing capris. I had forgotten to take into account how high we were. Macie rode with Grandma and Pa the rest of the way to the Oregon homestead. We only stopped once for a potty break and then to eat right before we went to the relatives.

There were so many relatives that people were staying in hotels, guesthouses, trailers, extra bedrooms, and bunking down with the kids.

On Thanksgiving we went to some friends of my Aunt. They have a building on their property that is like a grange. We had a fire, food, drinks, visiting, a gift exchange, and fireworks. We even had the traditional Mama and the Papa's CD while cleaning up. I usually help with all the clean up and am involved with the prepration, but with the Gang I have I was very busy keeping up with Matthew and everyone else.

We visited all day Friday and drove home Sat. The kids did really well. We only stopped for one meal, gas and potty. When we got gas in Ashland we got ripped off. You see, in Oregon they fill the tank for you. We asked the cheap gas, but somehow we got the $3.89 gas. ?????!!!!! We ened up getting 350 miles on that tank. So now Tom thinks maybe we need to buy the super expensive gas for better gas miliage. We are in the middle of the first tank about town experiment. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Anyway here we are back at home getting ready for Christmas. We will be getting our tree on the 15th and our house is decorated for the season. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Grandma and Henry

The kids waiting to open their gift

Great-Great Uncle Charles, Charolotte and Henry

The Holiday Picture

Well, I have to say that this year I am a bit early on the annual Hay Gang picture. I usually like to do the pictures in December because let's face it that is the Christmas season, but I realize that getting 5 kids beautiful and smiling during December might be bit crazy. I had the picture take last year at the end of November, I just hope I don't start taking the picture in July. :) As you can tell this picture is a classic. Matthew took one step into the portrait room and said to himself "how can I make this a memorable night? Let's see I can run around screaming no at the top of my lungs, I can make silly faces, I can lay down on the floor and roll to my back while screaming. I think any of those would be great. How about I do them all?" We got this shot and I thought for sure that would be all I get, but the photographer was fab. She was able to get a group shot with Matthew looking half way decent. I like to have little groups within the big group. I got the girls, boys, big kids and little kids. I was thrilled. Julia held Henry in the little kids picture, she had to hold him a long time due to Matthew trying his tricks out. All of a sudden we heard a thud and Henry was on the floor screaming. Julia was done. The picture of the boys Thomas held Matthew tight and held Henry who was screaming due to the floor incident. Our tradition is that we take the picture and then go out to dinner. I was so exhausted that we just went to the food court in the Mall and they had McDonald's. The Gang had no problem with that. I guess the Season has begun for the Hay family. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love those sweet, cute smiling faces.

The Bigs

The Littles

The Brothers

The Sisters

Thanksgiving

We love Signing Time! The kids are going to share these new signs at our family Thanksgiving in Oregon.

5 months old

Our little Henry is 5 months old. He is such a giggly smiley little boy. He keeps us laughing with all his giggling. I love this picture because as I was trying to take it he couldn't see my face and he was frowning, but once I moved the camera away from my face he would see me and smile. Of course, when I moved the camera I was not able to get his picture framed correctly. I will get the hang of it my camera is new to me, I got it for my birthday in July. It is a Nikon D40. I love it.


Where is my mama?

Halloween October, 2007

The Hay Gang getting ready to Trick or Treat up the neighborhood. They were very excited to see all the neighbors. We also went over to Grandma and Pa's neighborhood trick or treating. Pooh thought it was great that people would open their doors up and pass out candy. He even walked into a few homes. He was so cute that people would just let him into their homes. The gang would sign and say "Thank You" when they left people's homes. All in all it was a great night.

A Cheerleader, A Football Player, Cinderella, Pooh Bear and A Dragon

The Gang went to a Halloween Carnival at Church. It is an annual event. Our ward usually has the carnival with the annual chili cook-off and dessert cook-off. The kids were so happy to sport their costumes before the official Halloween Day. Macie sported my old cheer leading outfit that I wore my senior year (I graduated in 1981). We had to pin it of course. Thomas wore a niners outfit that we borrowed from our friends the Bates', and Julia became Cinderella (Santa brought her the outfit for Christmas). Matthew also borrowed the Winnie the Pooh outfit from our friends, and Henry went as a little dragon. It was very warm and summer like on Sat., so the kids were hot in their outfits. They sure looked cute. I snapped one picture of the gang and Matthew decided that that was enough. I only got him by himself and then the other four together. Tonight we made lollipop ghosts out of tootsie pops, paper towels, tape, and drew faces on them. We made a bunch to pass out on Halloween. I'm not sure I will get a better picture than this one. I think it's sure cute. At the carnival they ate cotton candy, participated in the cake walk and each one won a plate of cupcakes and cookies, they touched shrunken head, troll eyes, octopus tentacles, and wet stuff, whacked a deacon (aka whack a mole), and had oodles and oodles of candy and fun. I'm sure it will be a blast next year as well.

Matthew as Winnie the Pooh and the Gang having fun before the carnival.

Macie, Henry, Thomas, and Julia

Signing Time Halloween Signs

We love Signing Time! and are so excited to learn Halloween signs from Rachel. The kids are very excited about Halloween. We still are unclear here at the Hay House what everyone is going to be. Henry will be a dragon, Matthew will be a bumble bee, Julia thinks she'll be a princess possibly Cinderella, Macie and Thomas are undecided. We have a Halloween carnival to go to on Sat. night. I think we will share some of our new signs with our carnival friends.

Adventures of the Hay Gang

This weekend started out innocently enough. We sent on a road trip to my nephews football game. Brad plays for Humboldt State University and we just had to go to a home game. I grew up in Eureka and his school is in Arcata. So we hit the road. Of course we didn't get out at the time we had hoped. We left a half hour later than planned. The trip up was great, the kids behaved and we stopped for gas and a picnic. Then onto to the hotel. (Thank heaven for travel DVD players). During our ride we saw Princess Diaries, National Treasure and the family favorite Signing Time! Happy Birthday to You. The weekend was fun. We swam in the heated indoor/outdoor pool, went sight seeing, found shells on the beach, and saw the house that mommy lived in when she was a girl. Brad's team lost, but at the game there were 2 jumpy houses and the gang jumped for 3 solid hours. They slept great Saturday night. Tom and I even got to sit and talk while we ate a hamburger (quietly of course), but it was nice. Sunday we got to go see Brad's dorm room. Wow, Humboldt sure does dorm rooms great. His room has a kitchen and a living room, along with a bathroom and bedrooms. He has it made in the shade. Then the real adventure began. My Dad noticed that we had a tire that was low on air. We filled it and headed home. We stopped for gas and had to fill it again. Tom thought we should be okay getting home. Well we got around Clear Lake and Julia threw up in the middle of nowhere. We cleaned her up and a highway patrol came by and said that we should probably change the tire. What???!!!??? In the middle of nowhere. We had a spare and we pulled off the main road to change the tire. Tom did all the changing and I fed the gang and had people go potty. All while this was going on we were on the look out for Grandma and Pa. They were about 45 mins. behind us and we were hoping to see them so they could stop and be apart of our adventure. As it turns out we missed them and they missed us, but when we got going again they turned around and followed us home. We were going very slow and people were passing us left and right. The kids has fun with this adventure as well. On the way home we watched Charlotte's Web. Good luck Boppy on your other games. Hopefully we'll see you play next year. We look forward to another Hay Gang Adventure. :)
Matthew having the time of his life in the jumpy house. The flat tire fit in the middle of Julia and Henry.

Birthday's

Well Tom is fast approaching a milestone. On Thursday he will officially be 50. Yes, I wrote the right number. I find it hard to believe that he is 50. We celebrated last night with my family and Tom's brother John and his wife, Erin. We hadn't seen them in a long time. We took all the kids with us to the restaurant. They were very well behaved and Tom and I were quite pleased with them. The restaurant we went to was a BBQ place and they put a cowboy hat on Tom and took his picture. I have found this new way of doing scrapbooks online. I used http://www.shutterfly.com/ and was able to make Tom a book of the kids for his birthday. It is a book all about the gang and their Dad. He loved it. Anyway it was a fun night and we hope for many more birthday's to come.